Dr. Carl Sagan

Isn't that amazing?

Dr. Carl Sagan helped design the plaques carried by both Pioneer 10 and
Pioneer
11. These plaques, bearing the images of a man and a woman as well as a
diagram showing Earth's location in the Galaxy, may one day be found by an
extraterrestrial civilization.

Carl Sagan was an astronomer and a Pulitzer Prize winning author who was
often described as "the scientist who made the universe clearer to the
ordinary person". Dr. Sagan helped to popularize science through the
writing of hundreds of articles and over two dozen books. His television
series "Cosmos" became the most watched show in public television
history. It was seen by more than 500 million people in 60 different
countries. Dr. Sagan was born in New York City on November 9, 1934. He
described himself as a childhood science fiction addict who became
fascinated by astronomy when he learned that every star in the night sky was
a distant Sun. He was always encouraged by his parents to research
answers to his innumerable questions about science. His scientific curiosity
led him to earn four degrees in physics, astronomy and astrophysics from the
University of Chicago. Carl Sagan taught and conducted research at Harvard
University. He was among the first to determine that life could have existed
on Mars. In 1968, Dr. Sagan became a professor at Cornell University where he
was also director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies. He was well-known
as a pioneer in the field of exobiology, the study of the possibility of
extraterrestrial life. He constantly appealed to NASA to extend its
exploration of the universe. In his role as a visiting scientist at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Carl Sagan helped design and manage the
Mariner 2 mission to Venus, the Mariner 9 and Viking trips to Mars, the
Voyager mission to the outer solar system and the Galileo mission to Jupiter.
Dr. Sagan suffered from a rare bone marrow disease called myelodysplasia.
Complications from the disease caused the pneumonia which ended his life on
December 20,1996.

A Question

What is the name of the field of study that investigates the possibility
of extraterrestrial life?